THE WEEK AHEAD

LONDON : Major Test for Major

British voters go to the polls Thursday to elect local government officials to town councils outside of London.

The results will be carefully analyzed to determine the popularity of the Conservative government of Prime Minister John Major. Should the Tories do well, political observers say, Major--who became party leader and therefore prime minister after Margaret Thatcher quit the post last November--may call an early national election.

For its part, the opposition Labor Party needs to gain about 700 seats on the local city and town councils to be confident of winning a general election, according to a computer analysis conducted for London's Sunday Times.